Arieh Sharon
Encyclopedia
Arieh Sharon was an Israel
i architect
and winner of the Israel Prize
for Architecture in 1962—the first in this discipline. Sharon was a critical contributor to the early architecture in Israel
and the leader of the first master plan of the young state, reporting to then Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion
. Sharon studied at the Bauhaus
in Dessau
under Walter Gropius
and Hannes Meyer
and on his return to Israel
(then Palestine) in 1931, started building in the international or so-called Bauhaus style in Tel Aviv. Sharon built private houses, cinemas and in 1937 his first hospital, a field in which he specialized in his later career, planning and constructing many of the country's largest medical centers.
During the War of Independence in 1948, Sharon was appointed head of the Government Planning Department, whose main challenge was where to settle the waves of immigrants who were arriving in the country, and in 1954 returned to his private architectural office. In the Sixties, he expanded his activities abroad and during the next two decades built the Ife
University campus in Nigeria
. As the city of Tel Aviv
rose from three and four storey buildings to multi-storey buildings in the Sixties and Seventies, Sharon’s office designed many high-rise buildings for the government and for public institutions.
, Poland
) in 1900. After graduating from high-school in 1918, he studied at the German Technical High School in Brno
(Bruenn). In 1920 he emigrated to Palestine with a group of young pioneers belonging to the “Shomer Hatzair
” movement and worked for one year with a farmer in Zikhron Ya'akov. He joined Kvutzat Gan Shmuel in 1921 which evolved into a Kibbutz
, working as a beekeeper, and later, taking charge of planning and constructing simple farm buildings, cow-sheds and dwelling units. In 1926, on one year’s leave from the kibbutz, he traveled to Germany to extend his knowledge in building and architecture.
In 1951 he published the Sharon Plan, which was the first statutory plan
ever devised in Israel, but which was never implemented.
and arrived at the Bauhaus
in Dessau
, where he was admitted to the preliminary course – the famous Bauhaus Vorkurs – by Walter Gropius
, the founder of the Bauhaus. Sharon studied under Josef Albers
, whose teachings were based on letting the student experience different materials, trying them out, and making experiments. Sharon’s exercises – turning two-dimensional sheets of paper and metal into three-dimensional shapes – were shown in a Bauhaus exhibition. In April 1927, Hannes Meyer
was appointed head of the building department and Sharon was to be greatly influenced by his teacher’s pragmatical and functional approach to architecture. In 1928 he and two other Bauhäusler, Gunta Stölzl
, head of the Bauhaus weaving workshop and the student Peer Bücking visited the Vkhutemas
Academy in Moscow, an avant garde art school with similar aims as the Bauhaus. Some time after their return Sharon and Stölzl were married. In 1929, he received his Bauhaus diploma and was immediately put in charge of Hannes Meyer’s architectural office in Berlin, to supervise the construction of the ADGB building – central college of the German Trade Union Federation - on site in Bernau
, which was remodeled in 2008.
In 1931, he returned to Palestine and opened his architectural office in Tel Aviv, while Gunta Stölzl
emigrated to Switzerland
with their daughter, Yael.
Sharon’s first commission in Tel Aviv was the construction of four pavilions for the Histadrut
(General Federation of Labour) exhibit at the Levant Fair in 1932. These pavilions, for which he had won first prize in an architectural competition, were composed of modular wooden elements, progressively growing in height and length, covered by jute. There followed a series of buildings in the so-called international style
which would help define the city's architecture as the "White City." In addition he built residential cooperative housing estates, private houses, the central administrative seat of the Histadrut in Tel Aviv, and in 1936 his first hospital for 60 beds, near Tel Aviv.
Sharon’s housing estates, known as Meonot Ovdim in Hebrew, were built around large garden patios in the center, a continuous group layout, a public space for the residents, while communal services, such as kindergarten, laundry, shops and synagogue, were placed on the ground-floor.
A distinctive feature of Tel Aviv’s town-scape are the pilotis on which most of the apartment buildings in the residential quarters are raised. This feature was achieved on the part of several avant-garde
architects in the early thirties in a fierce struggle against the existing municipal bye-laws. The spacious voids between the pillars created a shaded street-scape, added to the natural ventilation during the hot summer days and connected the pavements with the green areas.
forms the center of the community, where in addition to its primary function, the members meet on social occasions, cinema or theater performances, or political meetings. The school communities were built for 200–300 children of several kibbutzim, where the youngsters aged 12–18 lived, studied and worked together. Their layout was in fact that of a micro-kibbutz.
Sharon's main activity, however, was directed towards planning in the kibbutzim. He designed a great number of outline plans for existing collective settlements and their extensions as well as general layouts for new agricultural settlements, and school communities.
Other activities included a series of lectures at the Technion in Haifa, covering subjects such as:
, was to find solutions for the great waves of immigrants who entered Israel after the declaration of Independence. The team consisted of 180 urban planners, architects, engineers and economists. They set up drafts for a National Plan, dividing the country into planning regions in accordance with economic resources, geographic features, communication factors and historical background. The regional structure would be completed by the development of a regional urban center – a medium-sized town. Thus the plan provided for the establishment of 20 new towns, dispersed all over the country and established guidelines for industrial estates to be located close to the new towns. Sharon's plan led to the creation of development towns for example: Beit She'an, Kiryat Gat, and Upper Nazareth. Agricultural regions were planned expanding into the southern Negev
desert. A national water plan was set up that would carry water from the surplus areas in the north to the dry, water-poor areas in the south. And a network of National Parks was devised, spreading all over the country, exploiting the existing landscape features, nature reserves and historical sites. At the end of 1953, Sharon was invited by the United Nations to serve as a planning expert in a Seminar on Housing and Community Improvement, held in New Delhi
, and afterwards to Burma and Japan
.
Selected buildings:
Selected buildings:
wrote:
"Sharon as a man, - as pioneer and citizen, as an artist: could one risk separating such aspects or levels of a single, overflowing personality? Of course, here the architect is privileged; behind his forms, however, one cannot fail to grasp the human, spiritual and social aspirations of a people. This is partially true of all architects, because their work is always involved in a collective context; but for none, or perhaps only for very few others, is it evident in the same degree. In fact, Sharon could have been a driving force in the old-new land's adventure, even without being a leader and an architect; or could have been simply a key-figure in the profession, as he was after the 1948 War of Independence in Ben Gurion's technical office, and later as president of the Association of Engineers and Architects; or, again, he could have been strictly an artist in his own right. The inner meaning of his architecture derives from these pendular alternatives, from the joyful refusal to select one of them, reducing the range of his vital tentacles."
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and winner of the Israel Prize
Israel Prize
The Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
for Architecture in 1962—the first in this discipline. Sharon was a critical contributor to the early architecture in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and the leader of the first master plan of the young state, reporting to then Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion
' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...
. Sharon studied at the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
in Dessau
Dessau
Dessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the merged town Dessau-Roßlau. Population of Dessau proper: 77,973 .-Geography:...
under Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
and Hannes Meyer
Hannes Meyer
Hans Emil "Hannes" Meyer was a Swiss architect and second director of the Bauhaus in Dessau from 1928 to 1930.-Early work:...
and on his return to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
(then Palestine) in 1931, started building in the international or so-called Bauhaus style in Tel Aviv. Sharon built private houses, cinemas and in 1937 his first hospital, a field in which he specialized in his later career, planning and constructing many of the country's largest medical centers.
During the War of Independence in 1948, Sharon was appointed head of the Government Planning Department, whose main challenge was where to settle the waves of immigrants who were arriving in the country, and in 1954 returned to his private architectural office. In the Sixties, he expanded his activities abroad and during the next two decades built the Ife
Ife
Ife is an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria. Evidence of inhabitation at the site has been discovered to date back to roughly 560 BC...
University campus in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
. As the city of Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
rose from three and four storey buildings to multi-storey buildings in the Sixties and Seventies, Sharon’s office designed many high-rise buildings for the government and for public institutions.
Biography
Ludwig Kurzmann (later Arieh Sharon) was born in Jaroslau, Galicia, Austria-Hungary, (now JaroslawJaroslaw
Jarosław is a town in south-eastern Poland, with 40,167 inhabitants, as of 2 June 2009. Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship , previously in Przemyśl Voivodeship . It is the capital of Jarosław County.-History:...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
) in 1900. After graduating from high-school in 1918, he studied at the German Technical High School in Brno
Brno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
(Bruenn). In 1920 he emigrated to Palestine with a group of young pioneers belonging to the “Shomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair is a Socialist–Zionist youth movement founded in 1913 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, and was also the name of the group's political party in the Yishuv in the pre-1948 British Mandate of Palestine...
” movement and worked for one year with a farmer in Zikhron Ya'akov. He joined Kvutzat Gan Shmuel in 1921 which evolved into a Kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
, working as a beekeeper, and later, taking charge of planning and constructing simple farm buildings, cow-sheds and dwelling units. In 1926, on one year’s leave from the kibbutz, he traveled to Germany to extend his knowledge in building and architecture.
In 1951 he published the Sharon Plan, which was the first statutory plan
Statutory planning
Urban planning is not just concerned with the making of plans but also with the management of development to ensure that it accords with the objectives of the plan and is developed to the benefit of the general public...
ever devised in Israel, but which was never implemented.
Architectural studies
Sharon spent a month in BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and arrived at the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
in Dessau
Dessau
Dessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the merged town Dessau-Roßlau. Population of Dessau proper: 77,973 .-Geography:...
, where he was admitted to the preliminary course – the famous Bauhaus Vorkurs – by Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
, the founder of the Bauhaus. Sharon studied under Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
, whose teachings were based on letting the student experience different materials, trying them out, and making experiments. Sharon’s exercises – turning two-dimensional sheets of paper and metal into three-dimensional shapes – were shown in a Bauhaus exhibition. In April 1927, Hannes Meyer
Hannes Meyer
Hans Emil "Hannes" Meyer was a Swiss architect and second director of the Bauhaus in Dessau from 1928 to 1930.-Early work:...
was appointed head of the building department and Sharon was to be greatly influenced by his teacher’s pragmatical and functional approach to architecture. In 1928 he and two other Bauhäusler, Gunta Stölzl
Gunta Stölzl
Gunta Stölzl was a German textile artist who played a fundamental role in the development of the Bauhaus school’s weaving workshop. As the Bauhaus’s only female master she created enormous change within the weaving department as it transitioned from individual pictorial works to modern industrial...
, head of the Bauhaus weaving workshop and the student Peer Bücking visited the Vkhutemas
VKhUTEMAS
Vkhutemas ) was the Russian state art and technical school founded in 1920 in Moscow, replacing the Moscow Svomas. The workshops were established by a decree from Vladimir Lenin with the intentions, in the words of the Soviet government, "to prepare master artists of the highest qualifications for...
Academy in Moscow, an avant garde art school with similar aims as the Bauhaus. Some time after their return Sharon and Stölzl were married. In 1929, he received his Bauhaus diploma and was immediately put in charge of Hannes Meyer’s architectural office in Berlin, to supervise the construction of the ADGB building – central college of the German Trade Union Federation - on site in Bernau
Bernau bei Berlin
Bernau bei Berlin is a German town in the Barnim district. The town is located about northeast of Berlin.-History:...
, which was remodeled in 2008.
Tel Aviv in the 1930s
Gunta Stölzl
Gunta Stölzl was a German textile artist who played a fundamental role in the development of the Bauhaus school’s weaving workshop. As the Bauhaus’s only female master she created enormous change within the weaving department as it transitioned from individual pictorial works to modern industrial...
emigrated to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
with their daughter, Yael.
Sharon’s first commission in Tel Aviv was the construction of four pavilions for the Histadrut
Histadrut
HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael , known as the Histadrut, is Israel's organization of trade unions. Established in December 1920 during the British Mandate for Palestine, it became one of the most powerful institutions of the State of Israel.-History:The Histadrut was founded in...
(General Federation of Labour) exhibit at the Levant Fair in 1932. These pavilions, for which he had won first prize in an architectural competition, were composed of modular wooden elements, progressively growing in height and length, covered by jute. There followed a series of buildings in the so-called international style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
which would help define the city's architecture as the "White City." In addition he built residential cooperative housing estates, private houses, the central administrative seat of the Histadrut in Tel Aviv, and in 1936 his first hospital for 60 beds, near Tel Aviv.
Sharon’s housing estates, known as Meonot Ovdim in Hebrew, were built around large garden patios in the center, a continuous group layout, a public space for the residents, while communal services, such as kindergarten, laundry, shops and synagogue, were placed on the ground-floor.
A distinctive feature of Tel Aviv’s town-scape are the pilotis on which most of the apartment buildings in the residential quarters are raised. This feature was achieved on the part of several avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
architects in the early thirties in a fierce struggle against the existing municipal bye-laws. The spacious voids between the pillars created a shaded street-scape, added to the natural ventilation during the hot summer days and connected the pavements with the green areas.
Kibbutz planning in the 1940s
During the second world war, building activities in the big towns all but stopped, due to the lack of fundamental building materials such as concrete and iron. Sharon began building simple structures in the kibbutzim, above all community buildings and schools, which were constructed from local materials, like sand, bricks and lime-stones. The dining hall in a KibbutzKibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
forms the center of the community, where in addition to its primary function, the members meet on social occasions, cinema or theater performances, or political meetings. The school communities were built for 200–300 children of several kibbutzim, where the youngsters aged 12–18 lived, studied and worked together. Their layout was in fact that of a micro-kibbutz.
Sharon's main activity, however, was directed towards planning in the kibbutzim. He designed a great number of outline plans for existing collective settlements and their extensions as well as general layouts for new agricultural settlements, and school communities.
Other activities included a series of lectures at the Technion in Haifa, covering subjects such as:
- Early settlement types in the country
- The cooperative moshavim
- The kvutza which later developed into the kibbutz
- Physical layout of the various types of settlement
- Social and economic structures and
- Work organization, education and cultural activities in the kibbutz
Urban planning
When the State was created in 1948 the overwhelming majority of the population was concentrated in a narrow coastal strip. One of the main tasks of the newly established Government Planning Department, directly responsible to the Prime Minister’s Office under David Ben-GurionDavid Ben-Gurion
' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...
, was to find solutions for the great waves of immigrants who entered Israel after the declaration of Independence. The team consisted of 180 urban planners, architects, engineers and economists. They set up drafts for a National Plan, dividing the country into planning regions in accordance with economic resources, geographic features, communication factors and historical background. The regional structure would be completed by the development of a regional urban center – a medium-sized town. Thus the plan provided for the establishment of 20 new towns, dispersed all over the country and established guidelines for industrial estates to be located close to the new towns. Sharon's plan led to the creation of development towns for example: Beit She'an, Kiryat Gat, and Upper Nazareth. Agricultural regions were planned expanding into the southern Negev
Negev
The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
desert. A national water plan was set up that would carry water from the surplus areas in the north to the dry, water-poor areas in the south. And a network of National Parks was devised, spreading all over the country, exploiting the existing landscape features, nature reserves and historical sites. At the end of 1953, Sharon was invited by the United Nations to serve as a planning expert in a Seminar on Housing and Community Improvement, held in New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
, and afterwards to Burma and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Private practice
Sharon returned to his private practice in 1954, and set up a partnership with the architect Benjamin Idelson. From 1965 onwards he worked together with his son, Eldar Sharon, until his death in 1984.1954–1964: Arieh Sharon, Benjamin Idelson, Architects, Tel Aviv
- 1950/56 New Beilinson General Hospital, Petah Tikva, for 500 beds
- 1952/54 Ministry of Defense, Buildings 21 and 22, Hakyria, Tel Aviv
- 1954/58 Ichilov Municipal Hospital, Tel Aviv, for 300 beds
- 1954/58 Forum of the Technion Haifa, incl. Secretariat, Library and Churchill Auditorium (competition, 1st prize)
- 1954/55 Terraced Housing, NazarethNazarethNazareth is the largest city in the North District of Israel. Known as "the Arab capital of Israel," the population is made up predominantly of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel...
, for new immigrants - 1955/62 Regional Hospital, BeershebaBeershebaBeersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300....
(Israel Prize for Architecture) - 1958/60 Wingate Institute for Physical Culture
- 1958 Israel Pavilion at World Expo Brussels with architect Arieh Elhanani
- 1959/64 Yad VashemYad VashemYad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
Memorial, Jerusalem with architect Arieh Elhanani - 1959/60 Workers’ Bank headquarters, Tel Aviv
- 1959/61 Yakin Pektin Factory, Petah Tikva
- 1961 First Masterplan for the University of Ife, Nigeria
- 1961/65 Jewish Agency headquarters, Tel Aviv (competition, 1st prize)
- 1963/65 Sick Fund headquarters, Labor Federation, Tel Aviv
- 1963/65 Ife University Nigeria, Humanities with AMY Ltd.
- 1964 Ife University Nigeria, Halls of Residence with AMY Ltd
1965–1984: Arieh Sharon, Eldar Sharon, Architects, Tel Aviv
- 1965/71 Convalescent Home 'Kinarot', Tiberias
- 1965/72 Rambam Hospital, Haifa, for 600 beds
- 1965-68 Agricultural Cooperatives headquarters, Tel Aviv
- 1966/76 Wolfson General Hospital, Holon, Tel Aviv, competition, 1st prize
- 1966 Tel Aviv Medical Center, addition to Ichilov Hospital
- 1966/68 Memorial Museum, KibbutzKibbutzA kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
Yad MordechaiYad MordechaiYad Mordechai is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located 10 km south of Ashkelon, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 710.-History:... - 1966/70 Geha Mental Hospital, Petah Tikva, for 170 beds
- 1967 Israel Pavilion Expo 67Expo 67The 1967 International and Universal Exposition or Expo 67, as it was commonly known, was the general exhibition, Category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It is considered to be the most successful World's Fair of the 20th century, with the...
Montreal - 1967/70 Ife University Nigeria, Library with AMY Ltd.
- 1967/69 Housing estates in Beersheba and Nazareth
- 1967/72 Medical School, Tel Aviv University
- 1968/72 University of Ife Nigeria, Institute of Education and Sectetariat, with AMY Ltd
- 1968/70 Masterplan for the Old City of Jerusalem and its environs. With Arch. David A. Brutzkus
- 1968 The Ben Gurion Research Center, Midreshet Sde Boker
- 1969/74 Bank of IsraelBank of IsraelThe Bank of Israel is the central bank of Israel. It is located in Kiryat HaMemshala in Israel's capital city of Jerusalem, with a branch office in Tel Aviv. The current governor is Stanley Fischer.-History:...
, Jerusalem (competition, 1st prize) - 1970/73 America House, Tel Aviv with architect M. Tintner
- 1972-76 Ife University Nigeria, Oduduwa Hall with AMY Ltd.
- 1972/76 Soroka Medical Center, Beersheba, extensions and new wards block, 1200 beds
- 1972/82 Tel Aviv Medical Center, extension of existing municipal hospital to 1000 beds
- 1973/76 GiloGiloGilo is a neighborhood in southern East Jerusalem with a population of 40,000, mostly Jewish. It is one of the five ring neighborhoods of Jerusalem and is built on land in the West Bank that was annexed to Israel in 1980 under the Jerusalem Law. The international community regards it as an...
Neighbourhood, Jerusalem - 1975/85 Assaf Harofe Hospital near Tel Aviv, Masterplan and Nurses’ School, O.P.D. Clinics, Maternity and Pediatrics, and medical facilities
- 1980 Old Age Home 'Gil HaZahav', Tel Aviv
Critical acclaim
In “Kibbutz + Bauhaus: an architect’s way in a new land“, Bruno ZeviBruno Zevi
Bruno Zevi was an Italian architect, historian, professor, curator, author and editor. Zevi was a vocal critic of 'classicising' modern architecture and postmodernism.-University years:...
wrote:
"Sharon as a man, - as pioneer and citizen, as an artist: could one risk separating such aspects or levels of a single, overflowing personality? Of course, here the architect is privileged; behind his forms, however, one cannot fail to grasp the human, spiritual and social aspirations of a people. This is partially true of all architects, because their work is always involved in a collective context; but for none, or perhaps only for very few others, is it evident in the same degree. In fact, Sharon could have been a driving force in the old-new land's adventure, even without being a leader and an architect; or could have been simply a key-figure in the profession, as he was after the 1948 War of Independence in Ben Gurion's technical office, and later as president of the Association of Engineers and Architects; or, again, he could have been strictly an artist in his own right. The inner meaning of his architecture derives from these pendular alternatives, from the joyful refusal to select one of them, reducing the range of his vital tentacles."
Honors and professional membership
- Member of town planning committee, Tel Aviv, 1934
- Executive member of the Engineers’ and Architects’ Association, 1936
- Chairman of the I.I.A., Israel Institute of Architects, 1955
- Rokach Prize for Architecture (awarded by the Tel Aviv Munisipality), 1960
- Leader of discussion on industrial prefabrication at the U.I.A. Congress in London, 1961
- Honorary member of Royal Institute of British ArchitectsRoyal Institute of British ArchitectsThe Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
(RIBA), 1962 - Israel PrizeIsrael PrizeThe Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
, for architecture, 1962 - Member of Public Health Group of the U.I.A., 1962
- Member or the Executive of the U.I.A., 1963–1967
- Golden Medal of the Mexican Institute of Architects, 1963
- Chairman of the National Council for National Parks and Nature Reserves, 1964
- Honorary Member of the Academy of Arts, BerlinAkademie der KünsteThe Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...
, 1965 - President of the Association of Engineers and Architects in Israel, 1965–1971
- Honorary Member of Bund Deutscher Architekten, 1967
- Chairman of the I.T.C.C. (International Technical Cooperation Center) World Congress on: Technological Development of Israel and the Developing Countries, and of the I.T.C.C. World Congress: Dialogue in Development, in 1967 and 1970
- Honorary Fellow of the AIA - American Institute of ArchitectsAmerican Institute of ArchitectsThe American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
, 1970 - Member of the Curatorium, Bauhaus Archive Berlin, 1975
Books
- “Physical Planning in Israel”, Tel Aviv, 1951.
- “Hospitals in Israel and the Developing Countries”, Tel Aviv, 1968.
- “Planning Jerusalem: The Old City and its Environs”, Weidenfeld and Nicolson Jerusalem, 1973.
- “Kibbutz + Bauhaus: an architect’s way in a new land“, Karl Krämer Verlag Stuttgart and Massada Israel, 1976.
- “University of Ife Master Plan”, Egboramy Co. & Arieh Sharon, Eldar Sharon, 1981.
Articles
- "entwurf für das haus des arbeiterrats in jerusalem", (plans, perspective and description of the project in German), published in quarterly of the Bauhaus, edited by Hannes Meyer: "bauhaus januar 1929", pp. 22 and 23
- Planning in Israel in "Israel and Middle East" (Tel Aviv), March 1952 and in “Town Planning Review” (Liverpool), April 1952
- Collective Settlements in Israel in “Town Planning Review” (Liverpool), January 1955
- Hospitals in Israel in ”World Hospitals (London), Vol. 1”, 1964
- Medical Centres and Hospitals in Developing Countries in “Dialogue in Development (Proceedings of the 2nd World Congress of Engineers and Architects in Israel), Tel Aviv 1970
- Planning Jerusalem in “Ekistics” (Athens), November 1974.
Further reading
- Ospedali by Roberto Aloi and Carlo Bassi, Milan 1973
- Wohnen im Eigenen Haus by Gerhad Schwab, Stuttgart 1976
- Kibbutz + Bauhaus, 1976, foreword by Bruno ZeviBruno ZeviBruno Zevi was an Italian architect, historian, professor, curator, author and editor. Zevi was a vocal critic of 'classicising' modern architecture and postmodernism.-University years:...
- Entry in Contemporary Architects, Macmillan Press, 1980, by Gilbert Herbert
- Entry in Grove Dictionary of Art, Volume 28, pp. 556–7, 1996, by Uriel M. Adiv
- Sie legten den Grundstein (German) by Myra Warhaftig, Wasmuth Berlin, 1996, pp. 128–140
- Israel bauen: 2. Der Nationalplan unter Arieh Sharon (1948–1953), by Anna Minta, Reimer, 2004, pp. 51–66
- They Laid the Foundation: Lives and Works of German-Speaking Jewish Architects in Palestine 1918–1948, by Myra Warhaftig, (English translation), Wasmuth, 2007
- Deutsche jüdische Architekten vor und nach 1933 – Das Lexikon, by Myra Warhaftig, Reimer, 2007
- “Der Architekt Arieh Sharon“, Bauen und Wohnen, 12, 1969, by Julius PosenerJulius PosenerJulius Posener was a German architectural historian, author and higher education teacher....
- “Cast in History, Not in Concrete” by Wolf von Eckardt in the Washington Post (Washington, D.C.), 26 August 1972
- “Shaping a New Land – Modern Goes Natural in Arieh Sharon’s Israel”, by Wolf von Eckardt in the Washington Post (Washington, D.C.), 4 August 1979.
- "Kibbutz + Bauhaus: Modernism and Zionism as reflected in the Lifework of Arieh Sharon", by Zvi Efrat, Dept. of Architecture, Bezalel Academy, Israel. 2009.
Exhibitions
- Architecture in Eretz Israel, Habima TheaterHabima TheaterThe Habima Theatre , is the national theatre of Israel and one of the first Hebrew language theatres. It is located in Habima Square in the center of Tel Aviv.-History:...
, Tel Aviv, September 1944 - National Exhibition, Tel Aviv Museum of ArtTel Aviv Museum of ArtThe Tel Aviv Museum of Art is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was established in 1932 in a building that was the home of Tel Aviv's first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art opened in 1959. The museum moved to its current location on King Saul Avenue in...
, February 1950 - Conquest of the Desert (Kibbush Hashemama), International Convention Center (Jerusalem)International Convention Center (Jerusalem)The International Convention Centre , commonly known as Binyenei HaUma , is a concert hall and conventional center in Giv'at Ram in Jerusalem, Israel. It is the largest convention center in the Middle East...
, September 1953 - 50 years bauhaus, Stuttgart 1967 (exhib. catalogue pp. 202,203)
- Tel Aviv – Neues Bauen 1930–1939, Stuttgart 1993, (exhib. catlaogue in German by Irmel Kamp-Bandau)
- White City: International Style Architecture in Israel: A Portrait of an Era, (exhib. cat. by Michael Levin), Tel Aviv Museum of ArtTel Aviv Museum of ArtThe Tel Aviv Museum of Art is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was established in 1932 in a building that was the home of Tel Aviv's first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art opened in 1959. The museum moved to its current location on King Saul Avenue in...
, 1984, Jewish Museum (New York)Jewish Museum (New York)The Jewish Museum of New York, an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, is the leading Jewish museum in the United States. With over 26,000 objects, it contains the largest collection of art and Jewish culture outside of museums in Israel. The museum is housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in...
, 1984/5 - The Israeli Project, (exhib. cat. in Hebrew by Zvi Efrat), Tel Aviv Museum of ArtTel Aviv Museum of ArtThe Tel Aviv Museum of Art is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was established in 1932 in a building that was the home of Tel Aviv's first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art opened in 1959. The museum moved to its current location on King Saul Avenue in...
2001. - Solo Exhibition: Kibbutz+Bauhaus: an architect’s way in a new land, Bauhaus Archive BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, 1976 (exhib. cat.); the exhibition was shown in: Essen, Zurich (1977), Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Mexico City (1978), Washington, New York, Philadelphia (1979) and Chicago (1980). - Arieh Sharon – Bauhaus pupil and architect, Exhibition I 15.05. – 14.06.2009, ErfurtErfurtErfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian...
, Germany. Part of the Bauhaus 2009 celebration in ThuringiaThuringiaThe Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....